


A Wedding Present

by KrysKrossZee



Series: Quinzee's Love Fest 2021 [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Character Death, Fluff and Angst, Heavy Angst, M/M, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:41:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29476398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrysKrossZee/pseuds/KrysKrossZee
Summary: When it turns out that Snape is in fact alive, Harry isn't at all sure how to deal with it. But at least he has Antonin.
Relationships: Antonin Dolohov/Harry Potter
Series: Quinzee's Love Fest 2021 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2153220
Comments: 5
Kudos: 23
Collections: Love Fest 2021





	A Wedding Present

**Author's Note:**

  * For [00Q_Magnus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/00Q_Magnus/gifts).



> Written for the Fairest of the Rare's Love Fest 2021. #TeamCass
> 
> Written for 00Q_Magnus. I really hope you love this as much as I do. Thank you for the pairing, the challenge, and the push to leave it on a cliffhanger (of sorts).

The crack of someone apparating made Harry jump. He'd have been lying if he didn't admit that he was even more on edge than usual; he lived in a constant state of panic and that hadn't changed since the war had ended two years ago. But it was worse today and he knew that was because he was deep in Death Eater territory. They didn't call themselves Death Eaters anymore, doing so was dangerous and could have easily led to their arrest. They weren't even allowed to gather in groups of more than six and charms kept track of their location at all times. Some of the more dangerous Death Eaters were in Azkaban, but there just simply wasn't room for all of them, and that was actually something that he was glad of.

Antonin's fingers grazed over his skin as the older man sat down on the chaise next to Harry. If you had asked Harry where he had seen himself as an adult back when he was at school, he would not have ever said in Malfoy Manor, married to Antonin Dolohov. He still reckoned that all of this was a weird dream and he was going to wake up from it at any given moment, which was of course another reason for his heightened anxiety, but so far that had yet to happen.

"What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?" Antonin asked, his fingers still on Harry's cheek but as Harry looked into those grey eyes of his, he couldn't help but be transported back to the events of last night that he had been trying so hard to forget.

**

"Potter!" A familiar voice called through the ever-thickening fog that was circling around the grounds of Malfoy Manor. It was a voice that he recognised, and one that sent a chill to his very core. "Potter, please!"

Harry's blood was running cold and he backed up until he hit a wall. He could taste his heartbeat and although he couldn't see anything more than a couple of inches in front of his face, he was sure that everything would be red. He needed to run but he couldn't see where he could run to.

"Potter, please hear me out." The voice pleaded. It was closer now and he could feel the man's presence, almost cornering him.

"You're - you're dead." He stuttered out as Snape's face came swimming into view. He wasn't an idiot - he knew that a dead man couldn't be stood there in front of him, couldn't be talking to him, not since he had deliberately lost the resurrection stone anyway and unless someone had found the stone, that was. But he couldn't think of anyone who would have brought Snape back.

"Obviously not." There was that drawl that took Harry back to his childhood. He had faced many of the Death Eaters who had wronged him since the war had ended but none of them had ever hit him as hard as this.

Harry swallowed thickly as he tried to make himself reply but all he could do was open and close his mouth like a fish as he stared at the man. He found himself wondering if this was his own doing, if he had finally snapped under the pressure that he had been continuously piling on top of himself, but the stare that Snape was giving him told him otherwise. Harry was being transported back to his childhood and as his stomach constricted he could say without a doubt that it was not at all a nice place to be. He had worked so damn hard to put the past behind him, to grow into the man that he had become, but it had only taken Snape five minutes to break that down.

"I let you all think I died. It was the only way I knew that I would be able to get you to listen to me. I don't want the same to have to happen now."

Harry stared at Snape, he didn't think that he had managed to breathe, let alone blink since Snape had found him, and while he didn't want to listen to whatever it was that his ex-teacher wanted to tell him he didn't think that he had a choice.

"I faked my own death and then it made sense for me to stay in hiding, to let the world right itself without my interfering. I had some healing to do myself." Snape explained, his voice low and desperate in a way that made Harry want to vomit.

"Why come back now?" He asked, his voice shaking more than he wanted it to. He didn't want this man who had harboured an unhealthy obsession with his mother for far too long to get the chance to explain anything. He didn't deserve that, not when he had idly stood by and allowed for Dumbledore to do what he had. Not when Snape had aided the man that had killed his parents, his friends for years. He was well aware that his own husband had been on Voldemort's side, that he was far from perfect, but at least Antonin had been around after the war to help with the reparations, at least he had tried to atone for the things that he had done. Snape had not. He had hidden from the world, he had allowed for people to mourn him, and as far as Harry was concerned that was one of the lowest things that a person could do. He had one up on Pettigrew, he supposed, in that he had resurfaced after two years instead of twelve but Harry still hated him for it.

"To see you, to see -" he gestured with his hand vaguely and Harry realised that he was probably trying to indicate the house that neither of them could quite see. "- everyone. It was time to come back."

Harry shook his head feverently. "You don't deserve to see anyone. You certainly don't deserve to see me." His voice was terse and he hoped unwavering. He certainly didn't want Snape to think that he was at all scared of him, even if he sort of was. "These are my friends now, they're strangers to you."

For some reason this made Snape laugh. It was a horrible barking sound that made Harry flinch and had he not had his back still pressed up against the cold bricks of the building then it would have sent him stumbling backwards. "Your friends? People who would have loved nothing more than to see you dead not even two years ago?" He snarled, his nose now only inches from Harry's, so close that he could feel his breath on his cheeks.

Harry wished that he hadn't dropped his wand when he had been running, his panic had meant that he hadn't even managed to stop to pick it up and now he was regretting that deeply. He didn't have any other way of signalling to Antonin or Draco that he was in trouble, though he didn't even know if he was in any sort of trouble - Snape hadn't exactly made any of his intentions clear. Why exactly did he want to see Harry? It wasn't as if the two of them could even stand to be around each other after all.

"Harry?"

Harry felt himself almost tear up when he heard Antonin's all too familiar voice in the distance, but he didn't dare call back to him. He had no idea what Snape was planning to do now and he didn't even know if he was planning on seeing anyone inside the house now that he had seen Harry who had tried to make it clear that he wasn't at all welcome there.

"Harry, where are you, love?"

"Who's that?" Snape asked, his voice just above a whisper now as if he didn't want to be found which made Harry wonder if he was being honest about his true reason for coming back.

"Harry? Draco said he saw you come out here…" Harry could hear the desperation in Antonin's voice now and a small involuntary noise escaped him. He hated that he couldn't just reassure him that everything was going to be okay, even though he was pretty sure that it wasn't.

Before he had time to answer either Snape or Antonin he heard the sound of a crack somewhere off to his right and he jumped. For some reason that prompted Snape to cover his mouth. Harry thought about simply biting through the man's hand, but then he remembered that the older man was armed and he was not, and so instead all he could do was continue to stare in bewilderment.

The next few moments seemed to both slow down and speed up all at the same time, beginning with the second crack that Harry heard of to his left. He didn't dare look in the direction of the noise this time but it wouldn't have mattered anyway as a hand appeared out of the fog and grabbed Snape, flinging him away as if he were made of paper. Another hand appeared and pulled Harry away from the wall and against a broad, familiar chest. Harry's anxieties seemed to dissipate a little as he breathed in the familiar scent of the man he loved. His heart rate seemed to settle just a little and as he looked up he saw those grey eyes looking down at him, filled with pain and worry. Harry kept his eyes fixed on them as there was another crack and Antonin apparated them away.

**

Harry had avoided Antonin ever since he had woken up in one of the Malfoy Manor rooms. He hadn't understood why Antonin hadn't just simply apparated them home last night, but that wasn't the reason for the avoidance. Harry still didn't understand what had happened with Snape or why he was here, but he did know that he hadn't at all liked the way that Snape had made him feel. He was The Boy Who Lived, after all. He shouldn't be scared of anyone after everything that he had achieved.

And yet he was. He could still feel Snape's hand on his mouth and it made his skin itch to the point that he wanted to burn it off.

"Harry?" Antonin's voice broke through his thoughts, shattering them into a million pieces and not a moment too soon. Snape didn't deserve another moment of his time.

"I need to go home." He whispered as he stood up abruptly, his eyes flickering towards the fireplace, though he knew that it had been disconnected from the Floo Network when Lucius had been imprisoned - how he had managed to get a more severe sentence than Antonin, Harry had never understood, but he wasn't going to question it. As far as he was concerned, Lucius Malfoy being in Azkaban was a good thing - his absence had turned Draco into a decent human being.

"Harry?" It was Draco's voice that stopped Harry from striding out of the living room, that and he was blocking the only entrance. "You leaving already, mate?"

Harry could see him exchanging looks with Antonin but he tried not to let either of them guilt him into staying. Neither of them had told him yet of what they had done with Snape, but then he hadn't asked either. Draco, Antonin, Narcissa, who else was here? He didn't even know, except maybe Pansy was around somewhere. The girl didn't count as one of their group of six, and neither did Harry, as neither of them had a dark mark, nor had either of them been convicted of war crimes.

"I… this…" He trailed off, shrinking in on himself as he realised just how ridiculous he was being. He wanted to run from the very people who wanted to help him when he didn't know where the person who seemingly wanted to hurt him was. "Have you seen my wand?" He asked instead, deciding to change the subject, to pretend that was what he was looking for, even though he knew that neither his husband nor his friend was going to buy that.

"Your wand?" Antonin asked, his voice was closer again and Harry felt the man's hand on his elbow. Harry managed not to flinch at the touch, and he knew that was mainly because he was Antonin. Anyone else and he would probably have turned and punched them in the nose without a second thought.

"I lost it last night just before…" He trailed off, swallowing thickly as he realised that was the perfect segue into what had happened last night, not that he was sure he wanted the answers after all. "Just before I realised who was coming after me."

"He's locked in the dungeon." Draco said without missing a beat and Harry tried not to shiver at the reminder that this house had a dungeon, another reason he wished that he and Antonin had gone back to Grimmauld Place rather than here.

Harry nodded slightly, though the next words out of his mouth surprised him, and the other two men in the room. "I'll go and see him."

"Harry, I don't think that's a good idea." Antonin said quietly, though he would know that there was very little that he could do once Harry set his mind on something and as Harry glanced sideways at the man that he always knew would have his back, he saw Antonin back off.

Draco just nodded and with a small, somewhat reassuring smile, he led the two of them down some stairs and under the manor. Harry hadn't been down here since he had been held captive in this very building. As he walked down the stairs he could almost hear Hermione's voice screaming out from above them and Ron hammering on the door as he begged for them to stop, for them to leave her alone, but that had fallen on deaf ears, or on ignorant ones anyway. Harry wondered, not for the first time, how Draco could bear to live here with all the memories that this dreaded house held - but then he supposed that the man didn't really have anywhere else that he could go.

It was Snape that dragged Harry out of his thoughts with a sharp "Potter". Harry knew that the older man was blaming him for his imprisonment, but this place was at least better than Azkaban, which was the fate that Snape deserved in Harry's opinion. "Release me this instant."

Harry shook his head, words failing him for a moment before he cleared his throat. "No, we'll be contacting the Ministry, they'll decide what to do with you. Pretending you're dead to get out of your sentence won't work any more. I've seen you, Draco's seen you, Antonin's seen you."

"Antonin?" Harry hated the way that Snape said his husband's name and he knew that he Snape had just discovered a weakness of his, but Harry tried to remind himself that Snape couldn't hurt him, not from where he was in the dungeon. "You're on first name terms with the Chosen One, are you Dolohov? That is a development." Snape was sneering, but Harry knew that he didn't have a leg to stand on. He was stuck behind bars, not them. "Do you live together? If Black were still alive, he would love this. His godson sleeping with the enemy in his house."

Harry clenched his jaw and balled his hands into fists. It had taken him the better part of a year to come to terms with the way that he had felt about Antonin, to be able to accept that although his friends might not be happy about his choice in partner, Antonin had changed. "My godfather would be proud of me for not caring about what anyone else thinks."

Snape's lip curled up in a snarl. "Keep telling yourself that, Potter."

Harry decided not to take him on. It would seem that Snape wasn't going to be cooperative at all and the best thing to do was to just hand him over to the Ministry. He heard Snape call his name as he made his way back up the stairs, and he did his best to ignore the slurs that the older man was firing after him.

It was only once Harry got to the top of the stairs that he realised that neither Antonin nor Draco was following him. He frowned slightly and turned just in time to see an all too familiar green flash fill the corridor. Harry stood frozen to the spot, his heart thundering in his chest as Antonin made his way up the stairs towards him. He reached for Harry's hand and even though Harry wanted to, he didn't pull away.

"What - what was that?" He asked as he made himself focus on those grey eyes of Antonin's. He didn't think that he wanted to know the answer to that question as he heard the sound of metal scraping against metal, followed by footsteps on the stairs.

"Call it a late wedding present." Antonin whispered, the fingers of his free hand caressing Harry's cheek again.


End file.
